


I'll Be Loving You

by greenbucket



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: F/F, Light Angst, Possibly Unrequited Love, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 08:12:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14890827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenbucket/pseuds/greenbucket
Summary: Jenny's boyfriend is an asshole.





	I'll Be Loving You

**Author's Note:**

> For the Rarepair Bingo.
> 
> Title of course from New Kids on the Block's _I'll Be Loving You (Forever)_

Jenny’s boyfriend is an _asshole_. Like, Mandy knows she already hates the guy because he’s a dick, so her opinion is, like, way biased, but he really is a fucking asshole this time.

“I just don’t know why he’d do that, you know?” Jenny is saying, choked and wavering and Mandy is really gonna kill that asshole. “Like, _another_ break? We just got off of one.”

Mandy pulls a couple more tissues out the box for Jenny and hands them to her. Jenny’s still crying but she accepts the dry tissues to dab at the worst of the tears and her running mascara, and maybe she hadn’t realised her make-up was so ruined because she blinks down at the smudges on the tissues and starts crying harder. Mandy squeezes Jenny in closer to her side, rubs up and down her arm in what she hopes is, like, a comforting way with extra oomph.

It’s never that quiet in the Theta Alpha Theta house, and even though classes haven’t started yet all the girls are already back. They’d gone out to stock up on snacks and drinks, but Jenny had split to see her asshole (maybe-now-on-a-break) boyfriend, Chad, after he’d caught them crossing the Quad and asked Jen to get lunch with him. And now she’s on Mandy’s bed, crying. That piece of shit probably doesn’t even care.

“He probably just wants to sleep with other girls,” says Jenny quietly after a bit, “like, hotter girls. And ones that will put out more.”

Mandy wants to say _if you can’t see that makes him an asshole then I don’t know how you got your 4.0 GPA_. Instead, she says, “Fuck him then. You don’t need to, like, have sex when you don’t want. Not even if he pushes it. You know that, right, Jen?”

Jenny sighs and moves in to rest her head on Mandy’s shoulder, her tears dried for at least the time being. “I know, Mands, don’t worry.”

Her hair tickles Mandy’s jaw, and her perfume is thick and sweet in Mandy’s nose. As if the whole Jenny on her bed crying situation isn’t enough of a bummer already, it’s clear Mandy’s hopes of getting over things on summer break were too optimistic. She decides to put that realisation aside for later, when Jenny isn’t curled up against her and in need of either comfort or shit talking.

Trying to find the balance between the two, Mandy says, “Like, what girls are hotter than you on campus, anyway, huh?”

Jenny scoffs. “Loads. That girl in our econ class last semester?”

Privately, Mandy can admit that girl had been really, _really_ cute, but outwardly she says, “Please.”

“Chad said she was hot,” Jenny says in a small voice.

Mandy is going to punch that asshole in the face. “What? But you guys were _dating_ last semester.”

Mandy doesn’t have much experience with dating, rather than just hooking up, but she’s pretty sure it’s not cool to say other people are attractive _like that_ while you’re dating someone. She’s going to put paint in Chad’s asshole shoes or put his notes in the shredder before midterms. Usually it’s her and Jenny working together to pull off pranks but she thinks Jen might be too emotionally involved for this one.

Jenny shrugs Mandy’s outrage off. “What about Allie on the soccer team?”

“Not even,” Mandy is quick to reply, even though she and Allie had hooked up that one time, quick and secret in the bathroom of that party. She’d been very hot, and great with her mouth.

Jenny sighs again. “What about you then, eh? You’re the hottest girl on campus, Mands.”

Mandy smacks Jenny on the arm, but lightly because she’s probably still fragile or whatever. Mandy’s heart is somewhere in her throat. “Shut up.”

“I’m not even kidding,” Jenny insists, and she wriggles closer as if to emphasise her point. “You’re a catch, any guy would be lucky to have you. Maybe get, like, some better taste than me, though, okay?”

Mandy pushes away the twisty-achey feeling in her chest. _Deal with it later_. “Well, like, I wasn’t going to say anything but…” and she lets it hang. If Jenny knows her taste is shit, that she needs to pick better guys, then there’s not much more for Mandy to say.

Jenny is quiet and then sounds on the edge of tearful again when she asks, “Should I break up with him?”

What Mandy wants to say is _yes!!!!!!!_ , but what she says is, diplomatically, “Aren’t you guys on a break already?”

“I know, but maybe I should end it for real? He’s been jerking me around for, like, months with this on-off stuff and I don’t think I deserve that.”

Mandy is pretty sure she can hear, like, a hallelujah chorus from somewhere. “Duh. Of course you don’t, Jen.”

Jenny sniffs and wipes her eyes again with the mascara-covered tissues. “It’s so stupid getting upset, but I _liked_ him. Which is so dumb. Why do I have, like, the worst ever luck with guys?”

Jenny’s voice cracks a little towards the end and Mandy can feel hot tears soaking into the collar of her t-shirt; she starts up the comforting arm rub again.

“You don’t have bad luck,” Mandy says, hopefully reassuring, “And it’s not, like, you. It’s just your taste in guys. You sure know how to pick the assholes.”

“But then that _is_ me,” says Jenny, frustrated. She pushes away to sit up straight and continues, “Like, if that’s _my_ taste then I’m always going to be picking bad guys. I’m never going to have a relationship that works out. I’m never going to be able to move in with someone, or get married, or any of it.”

Then Jenny starts to cry for real again, face blotchy and shoulders slumped. Mandy feels bad, would like to hug Jenny for as long as it takes for her to feel better again, but it’s time for a reality check.

“Jen, come on, don’t cry. We’re in college, okay? You don’t need to worry about that yet.”

That seems to work all right: Jenny nods and even though she takes a little bit to calm down again, Mandy lets her pull herself together and figures it’s probably still upset about her asshole maybe-boyfriend rather than just fear about an entire lifetime of future relationships. Hopes it is, anyway, because Mandy can’t tell the future; who knows how Jenny’s life is going to turn out. All that Mandy can hope is that she’ll still be by her side for it.

“Thanks, Mandy,” Jenny says, forgoing the tissues and rubbing her hands over her face. She looks steadier, even though her make-up is really, really wrecked now. “You know you’re, like, my best friend and that I love you, right?”

And Jenny’s all nasal sounding, and she’s just been crying on Mandy’s shoulder about her boyfriend, and Mandy _knows_ it’s not like that but still, her stomach swoops. “I know,” she says, determined to just sound the caring best friend. Which, like, she is, of course, duh. But still. “And ditto, obviously.”

Jenny is the one to pull Mandy into a hug this time and Mandy goes easily, hooking her chin over Jenny’s shoulder and making herself focus hard on the notices already filling the cork board over her desk. Just the caring best friend.

“Sorry for coming in here and, like, crying all over you,” says Jenny, muffled where her face is pressed into Mandy’s neck, and then, “Hey, if I’m not married by the time I’m 35, would you marry me?”

Mandy knows Jenny’s joking, she’s kidding, a girl and a girl can’t even– but still. Her heart jumps back into her throat, her stomach swoops, her mouth is dry. Mandy can tell she’s taking too long to respond. What she wants to say, what she really _needs_ to say, is something equally light-hearted and jokey in response, something that says best friends for life without revealing anything else about how Mandy is now pretty sure she feels for real.

Instead of that, Mandy says, way too quiet and fervent, “Like, _duh_ , Jenny.”

And she hadn’t realised Jenny’s arms around her were loose until they’re holding her tight, and Mandy allows herself to feel all of it, sets a time limit for the end of the hug to stop and pack it all up away again. Allows herself to feel Jenny warm against her, the tickle of her hair, the smell of her perfume. Her best friend, her partner in crime, her sorority sister–

Shit.

“We need to help get things ready for the first round of rushing tomorrow,” Mandy says, trying to break the hug. They’re only sophomores so they don’t have much in the way of roles, not until the skit round; her and Jen are going to do, like, the best double-act performance Samwell has ever seen. It doesn’t seem fair to leave the work to everyone else though.

Jenny doesn’t let her go. “Just wait one more sec, eh? It’ll be fine, the rushes go off without a hitch every year.”

Mandy doesn’t need much persuading; she settles back into the hug, allowing herself a little longer to hold Jenny close and feel Jenny holding her close in return.

**Author's Note:**

> All knowledge of sororities from media portrayals and [this](https://www.hercampus.com/life/greek-life/your-complete-guide-sorority-rush) article.
> 
> Yes, Jenny is Canadian here.


End file.
